A method of this kind for manufacturing ceramic multilayer substrates provided as circuit supports for complex electronic circuits is shown in European Patent Application No. 300 186. A conductive metal pattern and a coating made of an organic material are printed, using the screen printing process, onto a green ceramic film, i.e., an unfired ceramic film in the raw state. The structures are first pressed into the green ceramic film. The green ceramic film is then arranged in a stack together with further green ceramic films, laminated, and fired.
German Patent Application No. DE 43 36 235 shows a method for manufacturing ceramic multilayers which allows the configuration of capacitors in a ceramic multilayer substrate. In this method a first green ceramic film is equipped, before stacking, with punched holes (called "vias") that are filled with a capacitor paste, and electrodes are then printed above and below the vias using the screen printing process. The first green ceramic film, together with further green ceramic films which have the structures for conductive paths and through contacts, is then stacked, laminated, and fired.
The method shown in German Patent Application No. DE 43 36 235 for configuring capacitors in a ceramic multilayer has the disadvantage that the vias filled with the capacitor paste always extend through the thickness of the entire ceramic film, so that the dielectric layer between the two electrodes of the capacitor becomes relatively thick and cannot be defined as desired. In addition the electrode surfaces are only partly occupied by the filled vias, so that for this reason as well the capacitance of the resulting capacitor cannot be freely adjusted.